Bruno Dobrusin

Neuquen, Argentina
International Development Studies and Politics

Bruno Dobrusin left his home in Neuquen, Argentina and arrived in Peterborough with nothing but a suitcase. He was excited to start studying at Trent University, and fuelled by aspirations to return home with a university degree and the means to help his fellow Argentineans.

“I arrived at residence and had absolutely nothing, not even a blanket or pillow,” he recalls. “All the local students were arriving with trucks full of what they needed to be comfortable. After a couple days, the people in my corridor chipped in with anything they weren’t using. In less than a week I was equipped with all the basics, including a second hand computer that I am still using.”

This warm welcome set the tone for Bruno’s Canadian university experience. “It was a great reception to Canada and Trent,” he says. “So many people, who didn’t even know me, helped me in such a nice way.”

Opting to study abroad because he was aware that his home country could not offer him the educational experience he was looking for, Bruno found at Trent both the financial support he needed and the quality academic environment he wanted.

“Studying abroad represented a great opportunity to get to know a different country, experience culture in a different context and also learn about myself outside the sphere of my country and family,” he says. In talking about his decision to come to Trent, he adds: “I wanted to study at a small university that was known for progressive ideas and progressive teachers. The Trent atmosphere appeared to be one in which academics combined with active engagement. I can now say this was very much my experience.”

As a Trent student, Bruno studied both International Development Studies and Politics, graduating with a joint degree. His honours thesis, a project titled “The recovered factories and Peronism: a grey zone in an Argentine social movement” focused on social movements, political identities and political movements in Argentina. Under the supervision of Trent History professor Dr. David Sheinin, Bruno’s project won the undergraduate level Juan Espadas Prize at the Mid Atlantic Council of Latin American Studies. He hopes to use the project as the basis of a Masters thesis as he begins graduate work in Labour Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

“I would like to go back home to Argentina and become involved with social movements, specifically the labour movement,” Bruno says about the future. “I believe it is very important that people who have the opportunity to study abroad return and contribute to the places they are from.”